Caregiver-infant interactions
A01
2 interactions
- Reciprocity
- Interactional synchrony
Babies have meaningful social interactions with their carers, these interactions have
important functions for the child’s social development.
Reciprocity:
- Each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them, how
2 people interact.
- Alert phases – babies have ‘alert phases’ that signal that they are ready for
interaction
- Feldman and Eidelman (2007) – mothers pick up on and respond to a baby’s
alertness around 2/3 of the time
- Finegood et al (2006) – varies according to the skill of the mother and external
factors
- Feldman (2007) – around 3 months interaction becomes increasingly frequent.
Mother and baby pay close attention to verbal signals and facial expressions
- Brazelton et al (1975) described reciprocity as like a “dance” because it is just 2
people dancing and responding to one another’s moves
Interactional synchrony:
- Caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other
- Carry out the same action simultaneously
- Feldman (2007) defines interactional synchrony as “the co-ordination of micro-
level behaviour”- also known as mirroring
- Meltzoff and Moore (1977) observed the beginning of interactional synchrony in
babies as young as 2 weeks old. The adult displayed facial expressions or
distinctive gestures and the baby’s response was filmed and labelled. Babies’
expressions and gestures were more likely to mirror those of the adults more than
chance would predict.
- Isabella et al (1989) observed 30 mothers and babies and assessed the degree of
synchrony. Also, assessed the quality of mother-baby attachment. Found high
levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment.
A03
Filmed observations
One strength of the research on this topic is that caregiver-infant interactions are usually
filmed in a laboratory.
This means that other activities, that might distract a baby, can be controlled. Also, using
films means that observations can be recorded and analysed later. Therefore, it is
unlikely that researchers will miss key behaviours. Furthermore, having filmed
interactions means that more than one observer can record data and establish the inter-
rater reliability of observations. Finally, babies don’t know they are being observed, so
their behaviour does not change in response to observation.
Therefore, the data collected in such research should have good reliability and validity.
Difficulty observing babies
One limitation of research into caregiver-infant interaction is that it is hard to interpret a
baby’s behaviour. Young babies lack coordination and much of their bodies are almost
immobile. Movements being observed are just small hand movements or subtle changes
in expression. It is difficult to be sure and difficult to determine what is taking place from
the baby’s perspective, one cannot know whether a movement such as a hand twitch is
random or triggered by what the caregiver had done.
This means we cannot be certain that the behaviours seen in caregiver-infant
interactions have a special meaning.
A01
2 interactions
- Reciprocity
- Interactional synchrony
Babies have meaningful social interactions with their carers, these interactions have
important functions for the child’s social development.
Reciprocity:
- Each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them, how
2 people interact.
- Alert phases – babies have ‘alert phases’ that signal that they are ready for
interaction
- Feldman and Eidelman (2007) – mothers pick up on and respond to a baby’s
alertness around 2/3 of the time
- Finegood et al (2006) – varies according to the skill of the mother and external
factors
- Feldman (2007) – around 3 months interaction becomes increasingly frequent.
Mother and baby pay close attention to verbal signals and facial expressions
- Brazelton et al (1975) described reciprocity as like a “dance” because it is just 2
people dancing and responding to one another’s moves
Interactional synchrony:
- Caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other
- Carry out the same action simultaneously
- Feldman (2007) defines interactional synchrony as “the co-ordination of micro-
level behaviour”- also known as mirroring
- Meltzoff and Moore (1977) observed the beginning of interactional synchrony in
babies as young as 2 weeks old. The adult displayed facial expressions or
distinctive gestures and the baby’s response was filmed and labelled. Babies’
expressions and gestures were more likely to mirror those of the adults more than
chance would predict.
- Isabella et al (1989) observed 30 mothers and babies and assessed the degree of
synchrony. Also, assessed the quality of mother-baby attachment. Found high
levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment.
A03
Filmed observations
One strength of the research on this topic is that caregiver-infant interactions are usually
filmed in a laboratory.
This means that other activities, that might distract a baby, can be controlled. Also, using
films means that observations can be recorded and analysed later. Therefore, it is
unlikely that researchers will miss key behaviours. Furthermore, having filmed
interactions means that more than one observer can record data and establish the inter-
rater reliability of observations. Finally, babies don’t know they are being observed, so
their behaviour does not change in response to observation.
Therefore, the data collected in such research should have good reliability and validity.
Difficulty observing babies
One limitation of research into caregiver-infant interaction is that it is hard to interpret a
baby’s behaviour. Young babies lack coordination and much of their bodies are almost
immobile. Movements being observed are just small hand movements or subtle changes
in expression. It is difficult to be sure and difficult to determine what is taking place from
the baby’s perspective, one cannot know whether a movement such as a hand twitch is
random or triggered by what the caregiver had done.
This means we cannot be certain that the behaviours seen in caregiver-infant
interactions have a special meaning.
